Guided by intuition

Been kind of a weird week, and every time I sit down to write blog posts, whoosh!, there goes another day. But I'm here now, it must be meant to be.

Signs and portents everywhere. At least, that's what some people will tell you. I see them myself, although I admit that I'm more often skeptical (that's my next book--The Skeptical Mystic. Or maybe not.) about what I, or anyone else, might consider "a sign."

I'm also skeptical about what my intuition tells me. I don't know if I was born hyper-analytical--Mom didn't put anything like that in my baby book. You know: Lorena spoke her first words today. I was hoping for "mama," or even "dada," but imagine my surprise when the first thing she said was "prove it!"

Okay, I'm not quite that skeptical. And there are probably a lot of people who look at what I believe (or they think I believe) and assume I'm not analyzing any of it, since of course it makes more sense to believe it their way (post on the comparative 'huh???'s of religion, atheism, and what-have-you to come later when I don't mind ticking off everyone I know). For now, back to intuition.

The tricky thing to following your intuition is actually two-fold, which conveniently creates a middle way to follow. First, you have to trust what it's telling you (this is the part that gets me, because I'm over-reliant on step two). You also have to trust that what it's telling you is significant, rather than stating a preference OR presenting you with a thought based on a projection of what you want. I tend to worry about this part a lot, which means I don't really trust what my intuition says until something or someone confirms it. So if my intuition is screaming at me (I can be a little hard of cosmic hearing), I look for signs, and then I worry about coincidence and projection and all that and I'm back where I started.

So what does a skeptic who understands that there is something to this intuition business, but isn't really sure it applies now, do?

I suggest going with it. Take notes if you want--teachers seem to always recommend journaling things like intuitive moments--or moments that you think are intuitive, at least--and dreams. This gives you a record, which can be kind of handy later. It's also handy if something happens that you think might be related to your intuitive impulse, because then you learn to build connections between your symbols. Getting things "wrong" uses the same probabilities as getting things "right." So if intuition is saying "wear red" (or your subconscious is perhaps projecting a preference) and you wear red, and there's an unexpected meeting called and it goes well (red being a power color), then the next time intuition says "wear red," you say, "huh. Maybe I should wear red. Might be nothing to it, but maybe the Universe is letting me know I need to be on my best game today." And you see what happens, and you pay attention to the difference in feeling so you learn to distinguish between intuition and subconscious statements of preference (making them conscious).

This is not superstition, by the way--it's not the same as ritual behavior that must be done before you make a move. It can be, of course, but then people can create rituals out of anything, including looking for inner guidance. But "I must wear red" isn't the same as "I must spit on my lucky shoes before the first pitch." In the first case, the intuition comes, and you act without particular expectation as to the outcome. You simply say, this may be an indication of xyz. In the second case, you assume your actions must be done in a particular way in order to affect the outcome. Wearing red when you know the meeting is scheduled is only superstitious if you think of it as your lucky color, not as a color that has been shown to psychologically impact people as a power color.

Intuition--whether it's your subconscious mind uncovering information you've taken in through the usual channels and stored, or the voice of God letting you in on something no one else knows--is real. It's worth learning how to maneuver past the tricky parts to allow yourself to be guided by it well.